FINA World Championships 2013: Water Polo Men: Day 3: SRB 16 CHN 9

POLO AIR INDONESIA, Serbia walked into the next round with three victories, beating a stubborn China 16-9 in their Group C encounter. While Serbia would be expected to win comfortably, Rick Azevedo, China’s coach from the USA, seems have steeled the team into a more cohesive unit, utilising its tremendous firepower.

China worked hard until the end of the game, especially against such a powerful team like Serbia. China’s brand of water polo is infectious, as different as it is from Serbia’s.

The man with the new baby, Filip Filipovic, opened the scoring and Serbia led 4-1 at the quarter break. It could have been higher is Dusan Mandic had not had his penalty attempt blocked by Honghui Wu.

Each time Serbia took a two-goal margin in the second period, China hit back until Dusko Pijetlovic scored the first of his three goals just before Halftime for 8-5.
This stretched to 11-5 early in the third quarter, then became 11-7and the n 13-8 by the final break.

Pijetlovic’s goal from wide on the two-metre line after a centre-forward drift, was excellent. He scored Serbia’s 14th goal and the match rounded out to 16-9, a good result for both teams.

Serbia has won six of seven matches against China, only losing a World League encounter in 2010 — Serbia’s biggest international defeat at 17-4. Serbia went on to win the World League that year, beating Montenegro in the final.